Delhi High Court allows virtual production of Yasin Malik in terror funding case amid security concerns

The Delhi High Court on Friday directed that separatist leader Yasin Malik be virtually produced before it from jail in connection with the NIAs plea seeking the death penalty for him in a terror funding caseAllowing an application by the jail superintendent citing security concerns a bench headed by Justice Siddharth Mridul said the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief who is presently serving a life term in the case need not be produced in person and modified an earlier order seeking his physical presenceldquoIn view of the matter the order dated May 29 2023 is necessarily modified to the extent that the jail superintendent is directed to produce Yasin Malik in the present appeal through video conferencing alone on August 9 and not in personrdquo ordered the bench also comprising Justice Anish DayalThe high court had on May 29 issued warrants for the production of Malik who is presently serving a life term in the case in Tihar jail on August 9 when NIAs plea for enhancement of sentence is listed for hearingThe Delhi government standing counsel informed the court there was an order by the President directing that Malik cannot be moved from the Tihar JailThe Supreme Court also expressed its displeasure when he recently appeared before it in person he addedIn the application the jail authorities said Malik was a ldquovery highrisk prisonerrdquo and it was imperative to not physically produce him in court to maintain public order and safetyRecently the jailed separatist leader arrived at the Supreme Court in connection with a kidnapping case against him prompting the Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta to flag the serious security lapserdquo to Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar BhallaAlso readDelhi HC to hear on Aug 7 plea to virtually produce Yasin Malik in terror funding caseMalik appeared before the top court bench on July 21 for the CBIs appeal against a September 20 2022 order of a trial court in Jammu in the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed the daughter of then Union home minister Mufti Mohammad SayeedHe was brought to the highsecurity apex court premises in a prison van escorted by armed security personnel without the courts permissionLater that week the Department of Delhi Prisons suspended four officials over Maliks physical appearance before the top court while ordering an inquiry into the lapseOn May 29 the high court issued notice to Malik on the NIAs plea seeking the death penalty for him in the terror funding case and said ldquoLet warrants of production be issued against Yasin Malik before this Court on the next date of hearing List on 09082023rdquoOn May 24 2022 a trial court here awarded life imprisonment to Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chief Malik after holding him guilty for various offences under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act UAPA and the IPCMalik had pleaded guilty to the charges including those under the UAPA and he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonmentAppealing against the sentence the NIA has emphasised that a terrorist cannot be awarded a life sentence only because he has pleaded guilty and chosen not to go through the trialWhile seeking enhancement of the sentence to the death penalty the NIA has said if such dreaded terrorists are not given capital punishment on account of pleading guilty there would be complete erosion of the sentencing policy and terrorists would have a way out to avoid capital punishmentA life sentence the NIA has asserted is not commensurate with the crime committed by terrorists when the nation and families of soldiers have suffered the loss of lives and the trial courts conclusion that Maliks crimes did not fall within the category of the ldquorarest of the rare cases for grant of the death penalty is iquestexfacie legally flawed and completely unsustainablerdquoThe agency has emphasised that it has been proved beyond reasonable doubt that Malik spearheaded terrorist activities in the Valley and with the help of dreaded foreign terrorist organisations had been ldquomasterminding planning engineering and executing armed rebellion in the Valley in an attempt to usurp the sovereignty and integrity of a part of IndiardquoldquoNot giving capital punishment to such dreaded terrorists will result in the miscarriage of justice as an act of terrorism is not a crime against society but it is a crime against the entire nation in other words its an act of external aggression an act of war and an affront to the sovereignty of nationrdquo the plea has saidThe trial court which had rejected the NIAs plea for capital punishment had said the crimes committed by Malik struck at the heart of the idea of India and were intended to forcefully secede Jammu and Kashmir from the Union of IndiaIt had however noted that the case was not the ldquorarest of rarerdquo warranting the death penaltyThe maximum punishment for such an offence is the death penaltyThe life term was awarded for two offences section 121 waging war against the government of India of IPC and section 17 raising funds for terrorist acts of the UAPAAccording to the Supreme Court life imprisonment means incarceration till the last breath unless the sentence is commuted by the authoritiesThe court had awarded Malik a 10year jail term each under sections 120 B criminal conspiracy 121A conspiracy to wage war against the government of India of IPC and sections 15 terrorism 18 conspiracy for terrorism and 20 being member of terror organisation of UAPA PTI